Stock markets rallied today after slamming into reverse on Thursday as fresh worries about Europe and the United States spooked investors.

Hopes the eurozone may soon emerge from recession were dented as the downturn across the region deepened - but a positive reaction this morning saw the FTSE 100, German Dax and French Cac 40 all leap again in trading; respectively, they are up 0.45 per cent, 0.66 per cent, and 1.7 per cent.

French firms suffered their worst month for four years in stark contrast to those in prospering Germany as the chasm between the region’s two biggest economies widened.

Down: The Footsie dropped 103.83 points to 6291.54 having briefly traded above 6,400 earlier in the week for the first time in over five years

The bleak news came after the US Federal Reserve hinted that it may be getting cold feet over its mammoth bond-buying programme designed to bolster growth.

In Britain, the Government recorded a surplus of £11.4billion last month, up from £6.4billion in January. However, after one-offs were stripped out, borrowing over the first 10 months of the financial year was £5.3billion higher than in 2011-12 – putting pressure on George Osborne ahead of next month’s Budget.

The FTSE 100 index fell 103.83 points to 6291.54 having briefly traded above 6,400 earlier in the week for the first time in more than five years.

The 1.62 per cent fall in London was echoed in Germany and France where the stock markets were down 1.88pc and 2.29pc respectively.

Shares on Wall Street were also under pressure as the stellar start to the year for global stock markets came to a shuddering halt.

Research group Markit said its index of private sector output in the eurozone – where 50 is the cut-off between growth and decline – fell from 48.6 in January to 47.3 this month. The gap between the Germany’s score of a relatively healthy 52.7 and the French score of just 42.3 was the widest since the survey started in 1998. ‘France’s downturn is likely to deepen,’ said Chris Williamson of Markit.